When designing microprocessors, microcontrollers, or application specific integrated circuits such as System on Chips (SoCs) for low power applications, the power consumption of the system is an issue. To lessen the power consumption of a microcontroller or SoC system, it is desirable to be able to power down associated memory that is not being used in order to minimize transistor leakage and retention current consumed by the unused memory. However before this may be done, any software interacting with the memory must be in a state where powering down the memory will not have a detrimental effect. Accordingly, there are long-felt industry needs for methods that improve upon conventional methods including the improved methods and apparatus provided hereby.
The inventive features that are characteristic of the teachings, together with further features and advantages, are better understood from the detailed description and the accompanying figures. Each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only, and does not limit the present teachings.